Stories of Self Defense

Guns Save Lives is not supported by ads and is ran as an independent project. If you support this project please consider supporting us on Patreon. Registration takes just a moment and even $1 is a massive help in continuing our work. Thank you so much.

There’s a new app in the Android Marketplace, and it may be exposing the fact that you’re a gun owner to the entire world.

University of California San Diego lecturer Brett Stalbaum has released an app to the Android Marketplace which encourages users to mark, on a map, the location of “irresponsible gun owners.”

Yep, the app’s entire purpose is to document and map the personal addresses of people who own guns. The “irresponsible” part of that is completely at the discretion of the person making the posting.

Not sure how this is much different than an app that allows marking the location of citizens by their political affiliation, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation, but apparently because it involves guns, it’s OK.

According to the “marking guidelines” for the app

…unlocked, loaded or carelessly stored weapons should generally be treated with concern by friends, neighbors and visitors. The locations of such careless owners should probably be marked so that others can make an informed decision.

People who add their neighbor’s address to the app are protected by anonymity. So apparently you can exercise your First Amendment rights anonymously, but not your Second.

The maker of the app understands there are concerns in regards to the app, and they have opened up a phone line to take feedback from the general population. That number is (225) 267-7346. If you’d like to express your displeasure in the app, I’d encourage you to do so politely and clearly, indicating that the app is a gross invasion of privacy.

The app, called “Gun Geo Marker” is available in the Google Play App Store. You can visit the official Google Play page for the app here.